The Shins reveal details of new album, hoping against hope that those details might be of interest to you dubsteppers

Yesterday (per Stereogum), The Shins announced some details regarding the release of their forthcoming new album. And everyone was all like, “whoa, I totally love these details; they really speak to me intellectually but are also just plain fun!” Everything was totally cool, and all was right with art, business, and music. The end. …Except then, right after that, front man James Mercer totally fucking fired the shit out of those attention-hogging, creative control-grubbing details and hired all new ones. But, uh, okay. Now that he’s satisfied, here they are:

The new album — the band’s first since 2007’s Wincing the Night Away (TMT Review) is called Port of Morrow (yeah, pretty Shins-y) and was produced by Greg Kurstin (Lily Allen, The Bird and the Bee, Kylie Minogue). …Except that right after Kurstin was done producing it, Mercer totally fucking fired his ass from having produced half of it and listed himself as co-producer. Uh, yeah… suffice it to say, Mercer also played most of the instruments himself, probably firing songs one-by-one as he finished recording them. He’s been playing some new songs live recently, as you can see in the video below. (FYI, everyone at that show was later fired as a fan by Mercer.)

Port of Morrow is due this March via Columbia/Aural Apothecary. It was due in February originally, but… well, you know.

Port of Morrow tracklisting:

01. The Rifle’s Spiral
02. Simple Song
03. It’s Only Life
04. No Way Down
05. September
06. Bait and Switch
07. Fall of ’82
08. For a Fool
09. 40 Mark Strasse
10. Port of Morrow

After taking 2011 off from releasing new music, Matthew Dear has announced an upcoming EP to be followed by his fifth full-length, titled Beams, sometime later in 2012. The EP, Headcage, will be released on January 17 by Ghostly International and finds Dear exploring a slightly brighter sonic palette than on his 2010 release, Black City (TMT Review). This turn toward the light could be attributed to Dear’s newfound interest in collaboration. In addition to bringing on co-producers Van Rivers and The Subliminal Kid, notable for their work with Fever Ray, Glasser, and Blonde Redhead, Dear also partakes in his first-ever duet with The Drums frontman Jonny Pierce.

In preparation for the EP release, the title track has been paired with a video of swirling, abstract landscapes courtesy of London-based director Morgan Beringer that accurately captures its frenetic, tribal energy. Dear chants, “I don’t want a new life” as the track slinks forward through a hazy digital jungle. This isn’t exactly new territory for Dear, but a continued evolution of the sound he’s been crafting since 2007’s Asa Breed that is very welcome.

Can’t wait until the EP comes out and need more Matthew Dear now? Well, if you live in Australia or New Zealand (where they certainly know how to name a music venue), you’re in luck, as Dear will be doing a short stint of DJ sets down under early next year.

Headcage tracklist:

01. Headcage
02. In the Middle (I Met You There) (feat. Jonny Pierce)
03. Street Song
04. Around a Fountain

Composer and violinist (ah heck, we may as well mention he plays tuba and erhu as well) Eyvind Kang, who is most known for his Athlantis and The Yelm Sessions, is releasing his latest full-length, The Narrow Garden, on Ipecac come January 31. For those of you unfamiliar with Kang’s talent, you might have heard one of his many guest appearances with the likes of sunn 0))), Sun City Girls, John Zorn, Mr. Bungle, Animal Collective, or on this year’s Baroque Primitiva by Alvarius B.

According to Ipecac, The Narrow Garden is perhaps one of Kang’s most original and “playful” recordings to date.

Images that crossed my mind while listening to a few random Belbury Poly tracks: orchestras crammed into rocket ships that zoom around Jupiter, robots walking in slow motion across deserts, witches who live underwater, abandoned houses, a valley filled with old fashioned televisions that mostly show static but sometimes flash moments from black-and-white horror films.

Perhaps such a thought collage is precisely what Jim Jupp (a.k.a. Belbury Poly) seeks to evoke with his music. He pieces together bits of obscure sources such as forgotten soundtracks and library music until the sounds coalesce into something like a dreamscape, resonating from some bizarre netherworld beyond memory and imagination. Belbury Poly’s fourth LP, The Belbury Tales, will be available on vinyl and CD February 24 and will feature art by Julian House and liner notes by journalist/author Rob Young. A few preview tracks are included on the most recent Radio Belbury cloudcast on The Belbury Parish Magazine blog, and the album will be available for pre-order in late January.

Post-punk-whatever Brooklyn boys The Men (see what I did there?) are wasting no time to follow up the momentum gained with this year’s Leave Home with their third full-length, titled Open Your Heart, set to be released on March 6 on Sacred Bones. They will then proceed to tour and play SXSW to make enough money to cover their losses from you downloading the record illegally.

Most people prefer their interviews to be a page or two in length. However, I, being the extra-special person that I am, prefer my interviews to be long. Really long. Book-length, even. Perhaps that is why avant-garde (i.e. weird) musician and author Alan Licht has decided to write a book’s worth of talk-back with his friend and very prolific musician Will Oldham — all for me, the advanced and most important reader of book-length interviews! So, thanks Alan.

Seriously though, you guys, I am super excited to read Will Oldham discuss his musical persona in the book, aptly titled Will Oldham on Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy. Any real music lover should gush over this 400-page masturbatory discussion on individualistic music making, the music industry, and possibly other hot topics such as fashion taste or pickle phobias.

According to Amazon, the book will be available in the US on March 1, 2012. The book can also be purchased in the UK from Faber & Faber, when it’s published on January 3, 2012.